Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 40: Cadfael

Born in Wales, Cadfael left home to become as servant to a wool merchant in the English town of Shrewsbury, but would spend several years as a sailor or soldier, participating in the First Crusade and Henry I's conquest of Normandy.  After Normany, Cadfael returned to England in the service of a lord who kidnapped the abbot of Shrewsbury Abbey in an attempt to dismiss a lawsuit the abbey was bringing against the lord. Cadfael freed the abbot, and now being free of his oath to the kidnapping lord, opted to become a brother at Shrewsbury.

As much as Cadfael appreciates monastic life and his position as the abbey's herbalist, his secular experience and natural curiosity often lead him into conflict with the rules and expectations of religious life. Not surprisingly, those things that make him a less than ideal monk make him an excellent detective. His experience with the outside world also gives him the confidence and skill to venture outside the walls in pursuit of the truth, at some danger to himself during the time of The Anarchy.

And for all of the crime solving, Cadfael also finds time to attend to affairs of the heart, as many of the mysteries include a romantic subplot involving a murder suspect. He's also apt to mete out some rough justice, usually to the detriment of the authorities, though he is still great friends with the local sheriff (and godfather to his son).

I enjoyed the Cadfael series quite a bit, and found that author Ellis Peters (the pen name of Edith Pargeter) had an excellent handle on how to balance the religious and secular forces that weighed on Cadfael during his investigations. Both the period detail and local detail were outstanding, making me feel like I really understood what life was like at that time and in that place.

Thus ends another Lentorama, one of the few I actually finished on time. I apparently just need to pick topics that actually interest me, who'd have thought it? See you next year.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 39: Sister Agatha

Once investigative reporter and professor Mary Naughton, Sister Agatha is now a nun at the Our Lady of Hope monastery in New Mexico. She is an extern nun, meaning that she is able to interact with the outside world on behalf of her cloistered counterparts. This becomes important when one of the monastery's priests is poisoned mid-Mass, putting all of Sister Agatha's secular senses on high alert. She has to solve the murder before any attendant scandal pushes the financially unstable monastery into closing for good.

Sister Agatha goes on to solve other crimes - not always murder, but often - and becomes well-known locally for her skills in this regard. 

Unusually, this series was penned by a pair of authors, Aimee and David Thurlo. He is a New Mexico native, having grown up on a Navajo reservation, while she was born in Cuba but lived in New Mexico for most of her life. They also penned a mystery series where the main character is a former FBI agent turned Navajo police investigator, and another about a New Mexico state police detective who is both Navajo and a vampire.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 38: Reverend Martin Buell

The Rev. Dr. Martin Buell is dispatched to Farrington, Colorado to take on Christ Church parish. He was ambivalent about the assignment, and his attitude doesn't improve upon meeting Seneca Wibble, who considers herself the leading authority on the town and matters of Christ Church. And then on his first night, he finds a body. With more to come, all of which the local sherrif would like to pin on him.

This series was one of three penned in the mid-20th century by Margaret Scherf (the other two involved a couple that painted furniture and a retired pathologist). She also wrote some juvenile mysteries and a Nancy Drew mystery, all as part of a varied career of writing, editing, and administrative work. 

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 37: Father John O'Malley

John O'Malley is the priest at the St. Francis Mission, located on Wyoming's Wind River Reservation. In addition to his usual duties he also solves murders committed on tribal land, or involving members of the Arapaho nation, usually assisted by attorney Vicky Holden. 

Author Margaret Coel is a native Coloradan, and her career as a journlist helped her find actual events and stories to adapt into her novels. Coel wrote 20 books in the series in total before ending it in 2016.

Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 36: Claire Fergusson

Claire Fergusson is the new priest at St. Albans Episcopal Church in Millers Kill, New York. She's not exactly what the parishoners expected, as she's a former Army chopper pilot with a no-nonsense attitude. When a baby is left at the church, she enlists the help of the town's police chief - ex-Army himself - to find the parents, a mission that uncovers secrets, murder, and perhaps a budding romance?

Author Julia Spencer-Fleming does not appear to have entertained a religious vocation or served in the military. She does originally come from upstate New York, but lives in Maine now. Unlike many of these series this one is still active.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 35: Elizabeth Elliot

Elizabeth Elliot is a lifelong Quaker, and has just been elected the clerk of her Harvard Square meeting. Where Quakers do not have clergy, the clerk takes on many of the administrative duties for the meeting that a priest or other religious would for a church or similar community (though the clerk may also record any agreement made during a worship meeting).

Elizabeth is worried about her ability to handle the clerk position, and her concerns aren't helped when another member is killed in his garden. The police arrest a homeless man who the member occasionally hired to help in his garden, but Elizabeth thinks that the killing was more likely inspired by the rumored changes the member was going to make to his will.  Using her natural investigatory talents, backed up by a lifetime of Quaker practice and moral teaching, Elizabeth solves the first in a series of murders, both in Cambridge and beyond.

And as is the case with so many of these series, the author writes from a certain area of experience. Irene Allen is the pen name of Dr. E. Kirsten Peters, a geology professor from Washington state who is also a practicing Quaker. She earned her doctorate at Harvard, and attended meetings in Cambridge.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 34: Father Mark Townsend

Father Mark is a Jesuit priest in the Seattle area who first gets involved in a murder inquiry when a lawyer is found stabbed to death with an artifact from an Alaskan tribe that he worked with during time assigned to that state. The priest has to return to the Last Frontier in order to find who the killer is, and how they are connected to the tribe and this particular object.

The series sees Father Mark investigate cases that mostly involve indigenous people (with the last book in the series focusing on migrant farm workers). All of the books are set in the Pacific Northwest, which is where the author, Brad Reynolds (himself a Jesuit) resides.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 33: Rev. Lily Connor

Lily Connor is what's known as a "tentmaker," a priest who specializes in filling in when a parish is between permanent priests. She's home in Texas, where she had been helping care for her father, who recently died from cancer. A friend calls asking if she'll take a temporary assignment in the Boston area - their priest died of a heart attack - and she accepts the job. Only problem is that when she gets to the parish, she begins to suspect that his death wasn't what is seemed.

The Lily Connor trilogy was written by Michelle Blake, who was on the path to becoming an Episcopal priest herself but opted for writing as a career. She is primarily an essayist and poet, with these books being her only published prose works. 

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 32: Rev. Septimus Treolar

Another law enforcement officer turned cleric, the Reverend Treolar retired as a chief inspector of the CID and became the parson of the rural St.Mary's Danedyke. But when the locals suspect that the church is haunted, Septimus dusts off his investigatory skills to sort out who is behind what appear to be supernatural events. 

I've seen this series described as mysteries written for children or YA readers, which may explain the lack of a body count. The series is credited to Stephen Chance, which was the pen name of Philip Turner, who wrote a different children's series set in Darnley Mills, a town in northeast England. There is a prequel Septimus Treolar novel which follows his exploits during World War II, where the stakes are higher (he's trying to track down a spy) but still age-appropriate.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 31: Sister Lou

Louise "Lou" LaSalle gave up the bright lights of Los Angeles for the quieter precincts of Briar Coast, New York. She's looking forward to some peace, and her nephew works for the college her order founded in the area.

Of course, murder gets in the way of her plans. A controversial theologian, whom Lou invited to speak at a feast day observance, turns up dead. Lou, sensing that the local police are off track in their investigation, teams up with a local reporter to look into the dead man's past for something (or someone) that would lead to his killing.

There are only three books in the Sister Lou series, which see he involved in crimes both her sisters and the wider Briar Coast community. 

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 30: Father Brown

Perhaps the quintessential example of a clerical crime solver, Father Brown appeared in 53 short stories by G. K. Chesterton, written in the early 20th century.  Father Brown is Catholic, but that's about all we know about him personally. The stories shed little to no light on his parish, his bio, or even his first name (and what information we do get is often conflicting). 

What we do see in Father Brown is someone who can use his innate understanding of human behavior and vast knowledge of aberrant behavior (gained through a career of parishoner confessions) to figure out who committed the crime. He also benefits by his personal appearance and manners, which are unprepossessing and thus make him easy to undersestimate.

Chesterton created the characer based on John O'Connor, a priest and long time friend who played a pivotal role in Chsterton's conversion to Catholicism. As far as I can tell he did not solve crimes.

The Father Brown stories have been adapted several times for film, radio, and TV. The BBC brought Father Brown back in 2012, and are now on the 12th series of episodes (these are shown in the US on PBS). 

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 29: John Jordan

John Jordan was a cop in Atlanta, until the job got to be too much and he embarked on a major life change, as he put down his gun and picked up a Bible in becoming a prison chaplain in his native Florida. Now serving the inmates of the Potter Correctional Institution, he gets pulled into murder within the walls, combining his access as a chaplain with the investigatory skills honed on the force. 

Jordan shares a lot of his bio with his creator, Michael Lister, who was himself a prison chaplain on the Florida panhandle for years before turning to a full time writing careeer. Jordan also eventually leaves the prison (or at least he starts picking up cases outside of it), and later books have his father and daughter involved in the cases, too. 

One review I read suggested that the books would appeal to a Christian audience more than a general one, not sure if that was solely based off of Jordan being a chaplain or if the books have more of a religious or spiritual orientation than your average mystery. I didn't get a sense that the series was specifically Christian from the author's website. 

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 28: Brother Athelstan

Brother Athelstan is a Dominican friar, priest of St. Erconwald's in London's Southwark district, and secretary to the city of London's coroner.  Most of the mysteries that Athelstan gets involved in fall into the locked room variety - sometimes literally - where he has to figure out how someone was able to commit a murder under impossible circumstances.

As with many of the series set in English history, Athelstan also has to juggle his religious and detective work with political upheavals. The series is set in the 14th century during the reign of Richard II, which was never particularly stable, and covers the period leading up to and including the Peasant's Revolt, also know as Wat Tyler's Rebellion.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 27: David Winter

David Winter is an Orthodox rabbi in Los Angeles who, kind of like David Small on the opposite coast, gets into investigating murder when he becomes the prime suspect in one. In this case, it's the killing of a feminist rabbi who had been a guest on his weekly radio show. 

From what I can tell from reading synopses, though, Rabbi Winter's deductive process is a little more instructive in Jewish practice and folklore. This tracks with the interests of his creator, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, whose bibliography is largely non-fiction and covers a range of topics from Judaism. 

Note that Winter's first case actually appears in two different books, where the victim has a different name but the crime is more or less the same.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 26: Rev. Francis Oughterard

Set in 1950s Surrey, Oughterard is a little unusual among those we've encountered this Lentorama by being as likely to be involved in crime as he is in solving crime. The first book in the series sets up this dichotomy in later ones, with Oughterard not being a victim per se, but not really a willing participant in the various schemes that come his way. The series is also unique in that the stories are told from three points of view, two of which are from animals.

I have to admit I'm kind of intrigued by this series. There is also at least one spin-off novel featuring Oughterard's sister Primrose, an artist who gets into similar morally ambiguous situations. 

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 25: Theodora Braithwaite

Theodora is a deaconess and curate at Medewich Cathedral, and she gets pulled into her initial case when a woman interviewing to become the cathedral's secretary finds the head of a visiting - and controversial -priest resting on a baptismal font. Theodora reluctantly gets involved in the case, and her success in solving it sets her up for future cases, typically as she visits other cathedrals or takes on new positions.

The author of this series, D. M. Greenwood, once described herself as a "low level ecclesiastical civil servant," which makes me think that the series is in some respect semi-autobiographical. If nothing else, her career likely provided a wealth of source material from which she could develop mysteries.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solver

Day 24: Father Tom Christmas

Tom Christmas takes on a parish in the rural town of Thornford Regis after the murder of his wife in London, thinking that the change of scenery will help him and his nine year old daughter cope with their loss and regain a sense of security. Of course, those plans get blown up when a parishoner is found murdered in a drum. Father Christmas gets pulled into solving the crime as it appear that pretty much every member of his flock had some reason to want the man dead.

While the books in the series aren't necessarily set during the holidays, book titles and the general plot of each book are derived from "The Twelve Days of Christmas," though it's been a good ten years since the last novel in this series (there was a 2020 novella featuring Father Christmas that isn't part of the series). 

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 23: Sister Holiday

Sister Holiday teaches music at St. Sebastian's School in New Orleans, where she's settled in to life among the Sisters of the Sublime Blood, who took her in when she was at her lowest. She's not your typical nun, between the tattoos, smoking, and longing for an ex-girlfriend, but she's doing her best. Her foray into criminal investigation comes when a series of arson attacks hit the school, killing a friend. She looks into her fellow nuns, her students, and her own past, to figure out who is behind the fires.

This is the first novel in a planned series by Margot Douaihy, with a second book planned for this year. It's also the first book from Gillian Flynn Books, an imprint by the author of Gone Girl that seeks to publish books that are "propulsive and culturally incisive."

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 22: Bishop Henry Lapp

An elderly Amish bachelor dies in a fire, but it turns out that it wasn't an accident. The fire was intended to kill the man, and it's up to his bishop, Henry Lapp, to find the culprit and make sure that the man who was arrested - who Lapp knows is innocent - goes free. 

Lapp has the usual skills found by the protagonists in these series - keep observational skills, a good memory, and the logical ability to put things together - but he also seems to have an actual religious calling to solve cases, which is a little different from the other series that have come up here. Also different is that at some point Lapp suffered a traumatic brain injury, apparently the cause of at least some of his skills in this area. 

I did not know about the role of the bishop in Amish religious practice, and I thought this page did a good job of explaining what hierarchy there is in Amish congregations. I also didn't know that there was an Amish community in Colorado, but the San Luis Valley does in fact host a number of Amish communities.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 21: Sister Rose Callahan

Sister Rose is an eldress of a Shaker community of North Homage in Kentucky. Her first mystery involves the death of a "winter Shaker," a man who appears to have claimed Shaker beliefs in order to find shelter. While Rose wants to find the killer in order to serve justice and protect her fellow Believers, she also wants to minimize how much gets known about the killing outside of North Homage, as the locals are already suspicious about the community.

Future cases see Rose walking that same tightrope, but often with outside help provided by Gennie Malone, an orphan who was brought up at North Homage but opted to leave the community as an adult.

The series is written by Deborah Woodworth, using both her personal experience of growing up near Shaker sites in southern Ohio and academic experiencce from holding a Ph.D. in the sociology of religion. 

I'd always thought of the Shakers as a New York and New England phenomenon, but I think that's because the communities in those areas lasted the longest (including the one still operating in Maine). A number of communities opened in Ohio and Kentucky at the start of the 19th century, but they all closed by the time of the Depression (which is true of most Shaker communities generally). 

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 20: Sidney Chambers

Sidney Chambers is the vicar of the church of St. Andrew and St. Mary in Grantchester, a village near Cambridge. Chambers was reading theology at Cambridge prior to World War II, becoming ordained after the war. He is a bachelor, a fan of whiskey and jazz, and is friendly with a local police detective. That last bit comes in handy when a parishoner tells Chambers that they believe a recent death by suicide was actually foul play. Thus starts a series which not only sees Chambers solve crimes, but also deal with personal issues related to the war, his romantic life, and changes to British society.

Chambers was created by James Runcie, who was inspired by his father, former Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie.  He said he envisioned the stories winding up on the screen, which came to pass with the ITV series Grantchester (aired on PBS in the US).  The show became quite popular, and elevated its star, James Norton, to leave in order to puruse new opportunities. Out went Sidney Chambers, in came Will Davenport, another young vicar with a penchant for crime solving (who will himself be replaced for the upcoming ninth season).

The books, of course, do not see these changes, and detail how Sidney grows into his role as vicar and how he handles the various personal challenges that made his early years at Grantchester so difficult. I keep saying I'll read these, having watched Grantchester for a while, but still haven't gotten around to doing so.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 19: Simon Bede

The Rev. Dr. Simon Bede is an assistant to the Archbishop of Canterbury who also solves crimes, with the help of his friend and internationally-known photographer Helen Bullock. Though it may be that Bede is the one helping Bullock solve crimes, as the synopses I could find online for these novels paints her as more of the main character. How Bede manages to get away to help her (one of the books is set in Morocco) is unclear.

It's a short series, only four books, and it seems like the first two may be out of print as there was very little information online about them. And, as with so many sleuths covered so far, Bede is an Englishman created by an American, Barbara Byfield. Wikipedia suggests that she collaborated on the books with another author, Frank Tedeschi, but I only found him credited on the first book. 

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 18: Felicity Howard

Felicity Howard is an American studying for the Anglican priesthood at the College of the Transfiguration in Yorkshire. She is stunned when she finds one of her teachers, Father Domenic, bludgeoned to death, and another teacher, Father Antony, covered in his blood. While the police want Antony for the killing, Felicity follows the clues left for ber by Father Domenic in a cryptic poen and leaves the college with Father Antony so she can solve the killing.

While Felicity continues to solve crimes, her vocation becomes less certain. Will she continue onto the priesthood, opt to become a nun, or remain part of the laity so she can pursue other professional (and romantic) opportunities? 

This is one of several series written by Donna Fletcher Crow, whose other series are set in England and Scotland in various historical eras. Which is probably more fertile ground for period drama and mystery than her native Idaho.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 17: Sister Mary Helen

At 75, Sister Mary Helen could have chosen to retire, but not looking to slow down she opts to take on a teaching role at a San Francisco women's college. Not long after her arrival an earthquake strikes, and a body found in the rubble turns out to have been murdered, Police make and arrest, but Sister Mary Helen thinks they have the wrong person, and sets out to find the real killer.

Sister Mary Helen is helped in future cases by Sister Eileen, an Irish nun who is often her traveling companion. Cases mostly take place in and around San Francisco, but at least one book takes place in Ireland.

This series is at least one example of a clerical crime writer, as the author, Carol Anne O'Marie, was herself a nun of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Her work as a nun centered on education (both teaching and administration), though she was also a newspaper editor for a time and co-founded a women's shelter. Which makes me wonder where she found the time to write.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crime Solvers

Day 16: Father Robert Koesler

Bob Koesler is a priest at St. Joseph's in Detroit, and he gets into sleuthing when he helps solve the serial killing of priests and nuns, where the killer leaves each victim with a plain black rosary in their hands. From there, Koesler gets involved in solving crimes that primarily involve clergy or the church, often with the help (wanted or not) of other parish members.

There are over 20 books in this series, and it looks like Koesler ages in something like real time, as he's retired from being an active priest in the last few books. It also looks like the later books tackle some of the issues facing the contemporary Catholic church (maybe earlier books do, too, but in the synopses I read it didn't seem so).

The author, William X. Kienzle, was a laicized Catholic priest who reportedly left the priesthood due to the church's opposition to letting divorced people remarry. His post-clerical work focused on writing and editing, though he did make a foray into movies by adapting his first book, The Rosary Murders, into a film that starred Donald Sutherland as Koesler. Kienzle shared screenwriting credit with fellow Detroiter Elmore Leonard.

 Lentorama 2024: Clerical Crim Solvers

Day15: Abbess Helewise

12th century England is apparently fertile territory for writers in this genre, as this is the third series mentioned in this Lentorama set in that era. In this case, though, the action takes place after the end of The Anarchy.

At the start of the series, Richard the Lionhearted is at the start of his reign, and he orders a release of prisoners in order to build up his standing with the public. Shortly after this release, a novice nun from Hawkenlye Abbey is found murdered, and Richard dispatches a knight, Sir Josse d'Acquin, to the abbey to deterime if one of the released prisoners may have committed the crime (thus reflecting badly on the king). It's at the abbey where Sir Josse meets Abbess Helewise, who gets pulled into the investigation and helps discover the perpetrator.

This is just the first of several deaths that Helewise and Sir Josse investigate, and as also often happens in these series we also get to see a fair amount of their personal lives and relationships. The series doesn't seem to be as involved with royal goings on as others, though kings and queens do make the occasional appearance.